Random Question Thread: Tech

**Mafai** · 2011-12-01 14:36

Originally Posted by Pharaun

My brother was updating the BIOS on his laptop and something went horribly wrong and now it won't do anything went the power is turned on. Is his laptop now just a giant paper weight, or is there some way to flash a BIOS when the computer won't even attempt to boot?

Give the PC model or the mobo model number and I'll look for how to recover a bad flash.

**Pharaun** · 2011-12-01 14:55

It's an old Toshiba Satellite, but I don't know the exact model number off hand, I'll try and get that when I get off work.

Update: It's a Toshiba Satellite A215-S7422

**Caiyuo** · 2011-12-01 16:22

Originally Posted by Mafai

That laptop has 2 possible video cards:

Integrated Intel GMA 900 graphics or ATI Mobility Radeon X300

Integrated Intel GMA 900 graphics is possible to achieve 2048x1536 at 85 Hz maximum resolution according to the specs page. Check for a graphics driver here if you have that card. http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect/graphics

If you have ATI Mobility Radeon X300 you need to look into some custom drivers. I'd recommend http://donotargue.com/ for DNA drivers. This should let you achieve a higher resolution. Check out this post, it relates to your issue and might clarify everything for you. http://en.community.dell.com/support.../17240453.aspx

This was really helpful, thanks so much. I have the x300; not sure whether it was the DNA drivers or simply having the Catalyst Control Center instead of using ATI Tray Tools like I'd been doing, but I'd been testing the monitor with another laptop as well as testing my own laptop with another monitor and have had some success so far. My laptop with a regular LCD monitor was able to display 1920x1080 initially and after installing the drivers I was able to manually set it to 1920x1200 in CCC. Going to now test it with the TV I originally had the problem with and see if I get anywhere. I have a feeling that because it uses unchangeable presets with the PC input I'll be stuck there, but if that's the case I'll try what Isiolia linked. Either way this was good to know for the future regardless since I'll be set if I need to get another monitor. Think I got too greedy trying to fit all my desires in one box lol.

**Mafai** · 2011-12-01 16:31

Originally Posted by Pharaun

It's an old Toshiba Satellite, but I don't know the exact model number off hand, I'll try and get that when I get off work.

Update: It's a Toshiba Satellite A215-S7422

Common problem it seems. Read these three threads. Last one was most appealing to me. Keep in mind when reading this, the PC is bricked, how much worse can things get?

http://forums.computers.toshiba-euro...threadID=55438

http://forums.computers.toshiba-euro...54395&tstart=0

http://www.theeldergeek.com/forum/in...howtopic=41676

**Caiyuo** · 2011-12-01 19:21

Originally Posted by Caiyuo

This was really helpful, thanks so much. I have the x300; not sure whether it was the DNA drivers or simply having the Catalyst Control Center instead of using ATI Tray Tools like I'd been doing, but I'd been testing the monitor with another laptop as well as testing my own laptop with another monitor and have had some success so far. My laptop with a regular LCD monitor was able to display 1920x1080 initially and after installing the drivers I was able to manually set it to 1920x1200 in CCC. Going to now test it with the TV I originally had the problem with and see if I get anywhere. I have a feeling that because it uses unchangeable presets with the PC input I'll be stuck there, but if that's the case I'll try what Isiolia linked. Either way this was good to know for the future regardless since I'll be set if I need to get another monitor. Think I got too greedy trying to fit all my desires in one box lol.

No dice and while packing it up, noticed in the manual that it states it only supports up to 1366x768 on the PC input for whatever reason; why god why. So, with that said, on to go ask general and make a thread on selling a TV online.

**Kerberoz** · 2011-12-01 22:37

Originally Posted by Pharaun

My brother was updating the BIOS on his laptop and something went horribly wrong and now it won't do anything went the power is turned on. Is his laptop now just a giant paper weight, or is there some way to flash a BIOS when the computer won't even attempt to boot?

Tried resetting the CMOS? There's usually a jumper to use, or you can just pop the little battery out for a few seconds.

**Caiyuo** · 2011-12-02 13:31

So I have this powerline adapter with a pass-through for power supplies or high-"noise" devices that affect powerline performance, but it says not to use with something that exceeds 8 amps. The UPS I have is 750VA/450watts, but I wasn't sure if volt-amps were the same as what's being referenced since that seems like way too big of a gap for something that says it's made for use with power supplies.

**Niya** · 2011-12-02 17:05

Nope, the VA value on UPS is just an alternative to the Watt value. Has nothing to do with how many amps the UPS drains. But there should be a label or something similar near the power in port of your UPS that tells you the supported Volt levels and the min. amps needed.

**Not Kuno** · 2011-12-02 18:08

my CD tray only opens manually. it doesn't do much of anything when I press the button. ideas?

pressing the button does make it close, though!

**Kerberoz** · 2011-12-02 18:15

**Caiyuo** · 2011-12-02 18:53

Originally Posted by Niya

Nope, the VA value on UPS is just an alternative to the Watt value. Has nothing to do with how many amps the UPS drains. But there should be a label or something similar near the power in port of your UPS that tells you the supported Volt levels and the min. amps needed.

Awesome, it was hiding on the bottom. It says UPS Output: 6.5A, Total Output: 12A - am I screwed?

edit: The exact wording on the powerline adapter is "Output: 100-240V~, 15A Max, 50-60Hz" with a sticker warning under it stating "Recommended not to attach products with a load in excess of 8 amps"

**Not Kuno** · 2011-12-02 19:51

Originally Posted by Kerberoz

img

I dunno if this was in reply to me, but this is the sort of thing that needs cds. If thumb drives were an option I'd just do that.

**Senji** · 2011-12-03 06:08

Originally Posted by Caiyuo

Awesome, it was hiding on the bottom. It says UPS Output: 6.5A, Total Output: 12A - am I screwed?

edit: The exact wording on the powerline adapter is "Output: 100-240V~, 15A Max, 50-60Hz" with a sticker warning under it stating "Recommended not to attach products with a load in excess of 8 amps"

You're fine and within the limitations of that ups comfortably.

**Buffy** · 2011-12-03 16:33

My embedded buttons on my Toshiba Satellite are not responding, they include play/pause buttons, mute buttons, and forward/back controls for video and audio. They light up, but don't work. Anyone seen this before? My google-foo is failing me atm.

**Caiyuo** · 2011-12-03 16:36

Originally Posted by Senji

You're fine and within the limitations of that ups comfortably.

Thanks

**Niya** · 2011-12-03 16:51

Originally Posted by Caiyuo

UPS Output: 6.5A, Total Output: 12A - am I screwed?

Um... That should be how much the devices attached to the UPS can drain, but not what the UPS itself drains. Did you spot any INPUT values?

@Buffy: Those buttons are often linked to a small program that runs in the background and waits for them being pressed. Did you uninstall any of the pre-installed toshiba programs?

**Buffy** · 2011-12-03 17:21

Niya, as soon as I said something, I searched again, and found a thread that helped. I had to restart my flash cards, which is a statement I don't really understand, but I just followed the directions.

It solved 1/2 my problem: the sound on/off button that didn't work (mute), now works.

However, I thought the problem was related to why my ffxi freezes up when chatmon fires. Sadly, chatmon still freezes it.

edit: a re-install of my sound drivers fixed the 2nd part, chatmon is now working. I had done this before, but it hadn't worked, so I suspect the problems were inter-twined. Well that was fun.

**jmc** · 2011-12-03 17:27

New Mobo, did a fresh install of windows 7 on my SSD. Ran some benchmarks for the SSD's and thought the speeds were pretty slow compared to what they use to be before the new install.

Looked through mobo settings, and realized it was set to IDE mode...changed it to ACHI mode, and now the desktop BSOD's right after the windows logo loads on boot.

Do I need to re-install windows after switching to ACHI mode, or something else possibly wrong? Desktop was working perfectly fine before I switched the settings

**Niya** · 2011-12-03 17:39

Re-install would be the easiest way. But it is possible to get win7 to work after a switch from IDE mode to AHCI.
The reason for the BSOD is that it doesn't find its root partition (you should get a 0x0000007B) because the AHCI-compatible driver is loaded too late in the boot process. There should be tons of tutorials on the web on how to get windows to load the AHCI driver earlier, that should fix your problem. But don't forget to install the non-generic AHCI driver afterwards

**Jakson** · 2011-12-03 19:56

What are some more reasonably priced alternatives to iPad/2? Sister just wants one because of word processing / netflix / email, the usual, but doesn't like or need to carry around a laptop.

Edit: Googled a bit; Is the Fire and Nook the only real competition?

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